The Resurrector
by TessII
Summary: The Wizarding World once held those with the gift of Resurrection, before the war's wiped them out. Tom Riddle has stumbled upon one of the last of the Resurrectors. And even mananaged to gain their loyalty...


_**The Resurrector**_

_Prologue_

Footfalls bounced from the stone walls, reverberating throughout the corridor. They warned of an approaching presence, ominous in its raw power. However, those who were powerful enough to sense it could detect something within this man that was not entirely human. A coldness where love should be, a calm uncaring where guilt should dwell, and a small flame of hatred and contempt in the place of friendship. His hatred was controlled, unable to be witnessed from his cool exterior, but was there, eating away at the soul that had once defined him as a human, slowly turning him into something else...something new. 

"Mr. Riddle! So glad you could come." The doting voice of Headmaster Dippet washed over him, causing the inward hatred to strain against its bonds, it was secure, however, and easily repressed.

"I am glad to have been invited back to Hogwarts over my summer vacation." Purred the young man, his blue eyes seeming to glow a slight red in the semi-darkness of the room. The headmaster shivered slightly, but discarded the feeling, this was Tom Riddle, one of the most brilliant wizards of his age! A prefect destined to become Head Boy, at the start of the year.

It was extremely unorthodox, what Dippet was about to propose. Strangely predictable, however, seeing as his Deputy Headmaster Dumbledore was forced out this summer on 'business.' Tom smirked at this thought, twisting the ring upon his finger with a grin. Dumbledore would never find anything to link the perfect student to the murder of the Riddle family, but that would not stop him from suspecting. No matter, now that the entire wizarding world believed him to be their savior from the Chamber of Secrets he was nigh untouchable.

"My boy you know as well as I that you are always welcome here. Its only my great sorrow that we cannot offer our hospitalities to you throughout the entire summer." The headmaster became uncomfortable here and cleared his throat. "I also regret to inform you that this meeting is purely business, a proposition if you will." The headmaster offered him a couple Hershey's kisses, Tom refused politely.

"Ah, suit yourself, Dumbledore has become quite fond of these silly muggle foods lately…" The headmaster shook his head and brought the topic back around to the point. "Tom, since my deputy is currently unavailable I'd like to invite you to gather a very, ah, special case and prepare her for her first year of Hogwarts." Tom quirked an eyebrow in a show of surprise, he could not have the headmaster knowing that he had already gleaned as much from the open book of his mind.

"I would be glad to." _Anything to keep me out of that orphanage_ thought the young wizard with an inward twinge of fury.

"Excellent!" The headmaster snatched a scroll from his desk and handed it to Tom, who took the proffered document, recalling its purpose from his own collection, not so long ago. "The girl your retrieving is a young pureblood witch, she was abandoned on the doorstep of this orphanage almost ten years ago, but under her name is a wealthy deposit and instructions to attend our institute of learning."

Tom cringed inwardly at the mention of where exactly it was he had to go, he always hated orphanages, but if this kept him in the headmasters good graces…then there really was not much to say in the matter. The youth nodded once the breifing was complete.

"I'll fetch her."

* * *

The winds caressed the young girl, gently pushing the grasses to tickle her skin as she stared up at the slowly darkening sky, pondering the cosmos above. How could those dots hold the key to ones destiny? They were so small, so insignificant, just as the world was. And then there were these people, thinking themselves so high and mighty, when what were they in reality but mere microscopic _things _in the universe? 

Microscopic or not, life goes on.

The young girl pushed herself to a sitting position, gazing at the run down orphanage with something akin to pity in her eyes. It could have once been a beautiful palacial place, but that would have been over three centuries ago. Now it served as a prison for those without rights, as a cesspool for the selfish ideas of the men who lead her life. With one last wistful gaze at the stars the young woman stood, her dark tresses glowing almost purple in the fading sunlight as she turned away from the dreamy scene and toward her shelter.

"Tessa!" The shout rang across the cooling air and hit its mark in her stomach. The youth's muscles tensed in a mixture of dread and unreasonable fury, her eyes narrowed as her roommates approached her, blocking her way to the entrance. The young girl glared at her fellow orphans, these girls were the epitome of what she had been reminiscing about, thinking themselves above everyone and everything. She was sure that some day their self-important heads would get big enough to explode in a well deserved supernova of brainmeat.

At once she mentally shook herself though the thought was highly amusing, she was sure there was some sort of divine law about wishing such a fate upon one's enemies.

"Hey Tessa, what're you doing out here, all alone?" Grinned one of the girls, "find any new 'pets?'" Here Tessa's eyes widened, these girls were up to something, that was what those grins meant, they were up to something horrible, again. Perhaps they had done something terrible to her friend, to her child to her _pet._ She felt the anger boil within her, tried to calm it and noticed that she failed miserably as a window on the fourth story shattered. It did succeed in scattering the teasing girls and clearing her path.

Worry wedged itself in her soul as she rushed up the stairs, not bothering to restrain the magical turmoil which rolled off her in waves both heating and chilling the air with its electricity. She rushed passed an unfamiliar boy whom seemed to be conversing with the Headmaster of the orphanage, dodging him well enough to avoid skin contact, but not to avoid tripping over his lovely robes.

In retaliation her magic flared once more in defense, stabilizing her and allowing the young girl to continue her exhausting run to her quarters.

At last she burst through the door and dove beneath her bed, unaware of the boy whom had followed her and now stood in the doorway. Tessa withdrew the warmed shoebox and opened the lid, gasping at what she found.

The body of her familiar, his head crushed.

'_No…nonononono…_' the sobs within her wrought havoc on her magic, as the fury and terror gripped her, it flared, shattering all the glass in the room, it flared again, knocking each bed over, before she was able to grasp it and rein it in. Feeling as if she were a child attempting to hold the primitive rage of a wrathful bull in check.

"Sislio…" She sobbed, retrieving the grass snake from the shoebox, "Oh…Sislio…" The tears welled in her eyes as the anger and terror collapsed beneath her, depositing her into the chasm of despair. '_I'll..I'll kill them…I swear I will!'_ Her mind screamed as it beat against her skull, the embers of hatred stirred by the loss of the only creature she had come to care about. '_They murdered you, Sisilo, I'll do the same to them, lets see how they like it when I crush their skulls!'_ Her magic calmed slightly, contented by these thoughts.

"Revenge is a good reason as any for murder." The boy commented from the doorway, she spun around, gasping as a tendril of magic escaped her grasp and hurdled toward him, only to be deflected by his own magic. She gasped again from surprise.

"You have the gift too?" She hardly breathed, barely daring to believe it.

'_No, it's a trick, don't believe it.'_ She shook her head, the voice was right, the voice was always right when it volunteered anything. But he had proven he had use of his gift, better control than she, more power as well. She had _felt_ it. But she had to be weary, had to be cautious.

"There are many with the gift, you've only yet to meet them." He was charming, she suddenly realized, but there was something in his aura, in the way he held himself that warned of a deadly snake coiled and slumbering. "You, Tessa, are a witch."

"So then, does that make you a sorcerer?" Queried, the girl her curiosity genuinely provoked.

"The proper terminology is wizard." Riddle quirked an eyebrow as the girl seemed to fade within herself for a moment. He could sense the dozen questions she wanted to ask, but also he could sense the underlying words of caution within her mind, speaking of all the ways he could double cross her, if she were not wary.

"Why are you here?" Her voice was low when she finally spoke, as if the walls themselves were planning to betray her words.

"I've come to take you away." He responded easily, she looked stiffened, and his mind smirked in satisfaction at the doubt he sensed within her. She would make an amazing Slythern with all the suspicouns her mind supplied her.

"That isn't funny." She snorted, turning her back to him and lifting the bloodied grass snake from his now chilled shoebox. She turned back to him with heavy eyes, still clouded by her grief. "If you'll excuse me I need to bury Sislio where the scavengers wont find him."

"It's not a joke. I've come to take you to a place where they'll teach you how to harness your magical abilities." Here her eyes widened and she clutched the dead snake to her breast.

"You mean like you? I-I could learn to keep my powers in check?" She seemed hopeful before shaking her head. "You promise this isn't a trick?" She wanted to believe, she wanted with all her heart to believe that this boy was telling the truth, she wanted with every fiber of her being to trust him. But trust would not come so easily to her. The boy nodded and she nearly leapt for joy, only to have her magic do it for her. The magic infused itself into the snake and it began to writhe in her hands, startled, she nearly dropped him.

"Sislio?!" Her eyes were wide with happiness, she held the snake to her cheek careful not to squeeze in all her excitement. Tom quirked an eyebrow once more, but was inwardly blown over, she was a born healer, a very rare thing in the wizarding world today. He could use her to his advantage. "I'm so glad your alive."

The snake flicked its tongue compliantly, grazing her cheek and eliciting a wave of annoying giggles from the young girl. She placed the serpent on her arm, where he coiled to absorb her heat, like an exotic armband.

"I'm ready to go now." She grinned, Tom rolled his eyes before cursing himself, he had to break that habit! He motioned for her to follow him, and the girl obediently did so. Who would not, when promised freedom?

And all the while Tom's mind was working on a plot to make this girl the best and only Slythern Resurrector the world would ever see.

_Authors Note_

_Yes yes i know you all despise me for forsaking updating other fanfics to create this horrible peice. But rest assured, I will finish Kagome and Sesshoumaru's adventure, there's only a couple more chapters left anyhow and then I can revise it (eventually) and maybe even finish Sisters By Blood Sisters By Mind. Anyhow, I hope you enjoyed this fic. I'm not sure how its going to end yet, but i do know the direction i want to tak ewith it. Constructive Critisisms are welcome, as are flames.   
_


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